Here’s the latest check on the Bruins’ stats as they play elsewhere during the lockout. Not everyone is in action quite just yet, as Patrice Bergeron(Switzerland) and Andrew Ference (Czech) have signed with their teams but have yet to play. Shawn Thorntonis still looking for work, so keep an eye on that situation as it unfolds.

[Certain leagues’ stats take a little longer to surface on the various hockey statistics sites (HockeyDB is used for most of these), so some statistics might not be up to the day/hour/minute/etc.]

– In four games for EHC Biel, Tyler Seguin has one goal and two assists for three points and and a minus-4 rating. For any college hockey fans out there, Seguin is teammates with former UNH forward Jacob Micflickier in Biel.

KHL

–Zdeno Chara has a KHL game under his belt after choosing to play for Prague Lev last week. Chara did not record any points and has an even rating.

– 2011 second-round pick Alexander Khokhlachev has struggled mightily with Moscow Spartak, and the 19-year-old could be leaving the KHL to return back to the OHL. The Windsor Spitfires, Khokhlachev’s OHL team, claimed the playmaking center on re-entry waivers last week to secure his rights in the event that he does return. In 14 KHL games, the Moscow native has one goal and a minus-5 rating. Khokhlachev only had OHL seasons under his belt before opting to play for Moscow Spartak, the team of which his father is the general manager.

– In seven games for Moscow Oblast Atlant, Bruins backup goalie Anton Khudobin has a 2.88 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage to go with his 2-3-2 record.

Czech Elite League

– After finally securing a deal in the Czech Elite League last week,David Krejcihas one goal and an even rating through two games for HC Pardubice.

– Ference is in the Czech Republic and had his first practice for Ceske Budejovice HC on Monday morning.

Deutsche Eishockey League

– In two games for the Manheim Eagles, Dennis Seidenberghas not recorded any points and has an even rating game. Seidenberg chose the Eagles as his team for the lockout so he could play with his brother, forward Yannic Seidenberg.

SM-liiga

– Through three games for JyP HT Jyvaskyla of the SM-liiga, Bruins forwardRich Peverleyhas one assist and four penalty minutes.

OHL

– Tough guy Anthony Camara continues to dominate in his fourth OHL season after scoring a hat trick in the season-opener. Through seven games for the Barrie Colts this season, Camara has seven goals and three assists for 10 points and a plus-1 rating. The Bruins’ third-round pick in 2011 also has 15 penalty minutes this season. It should be worth noting that Camara’s career high for goals in the OHL is 16, a number he should far surpass this season. Camara’s scoring has steadily increased over his OHL career, as he went from six to eight to 16 in his first three seasons.

– In seven games for the Niagara IceDogs, Dougie Hamilton has three goals and four assists for seven points and a plus-7 rating. Hamilton also has four penalty minutes.

– 2012 first-round pick Malcolm Subban has a 2.18 goals-against average and .929 save percentage through five games for the Belleville Bulls. His record this season is 3-2.

WILMINGTON — Who knows when it will happen again, but Bruins players took the ice Friday at Ristuccia Arena for an informal practice. It figures to be their last time at their practice rink before the owners lock the players out on Saturday night.

B’s players (everyone was present with the exception of Nathan Horton,Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand) were joined by other local skaters, including defensemen Keith Yandle (Coyotes) and Ryan Whitney (Oilers). Ryan Bourque, son of Ray Bourque and younger brother of Chris Bourque, was also in attendance.

Some players will stick around locally and hold informal skates for the time being, while others (such as Dennis Seidenberg) will likely play elsewhere. Captain Zdeno Charaplans to stay in Boston for the time being, but he said Friday that as the two sides continue to negotiate, missing games helps nobody.

With the Bruins’ season in the books, WEEI.com will take a look at each player on the roster one-by-one to provide some perspective on what went wrong this season and what the future holds for the 2011 champions.

Contract status: Signed through 2017-18 season ($6,916,667 cap hit through 2016-17 season, $4 million cap hit in 2017-18)

Looking back: Chara had the best offensive season of his career and was once again one of the most dominant defensemen in the league. He averaged 25 minutes a night, which is right around his average over the last three seasons.

What was uncharacteristic for Chara, however, was his midseason slump. Though the Bruins as a whole were not playing their best hockey, the B’s captain didn’t look like himself in many of their losses. From Feb. 8-19, Chara finished with a negative rating in five of six games and was an overall minus-9 in that span. He was a minus-3 on three separate occasions in February and March after only having a rating worse than minus-2 once in the previous season.

Despite some bad nights from the captain, the 2011-12 season marked the second consecutive and third overall campaign in which Chara finished with a plus-33 rating. That was tops amongst NHL defensemen and third amongst players, and he had a lot to do with the fact that the five best ratings came from Bruins this season (Patrice Bergeronled the league with a plus-36, followed by Tyler Seguin‘s plus-34, Chara’s plus-33,Chris Kelly‘s plus-33 and Brad Marchand‘s plus-31).

After skating with Johnny Boychuk in the regular season, Chara was paired with Dennis Seidenbergfor the playoffs. Though he was beaten a couple of times and finished the postseason with a minus-1 rating, Chara teamed with Seidenberg to limit Alexander Ovechkin for the most part and keep the games low-scoring.

In the end, it wouldn’t be surprising if Chara’s season earns him his second Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman, but in the interest of full disclosure, my top vote went to Nashville’s Shea Weber. While there’s no denying that Chara is the best defenseman in the league, his midseason struggles made it tough to say that this was truly a full campaign of vintage Chara.

Looking ahead: While other players get plenty of accolades too (Tim Thomas‘ save percentage record, Seguin’s points, that Selke Trophy that should finally be making its way to Bergeron this summer), there is no doubt that Chara is the Bruins’ best and most important player.

Chara may be getting up there in age, but he is truly one of the few players in the league a team should be happy to have signed through his 30s and into his 40s. There might not be a better-conditioned player in the league, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a player more dedicated to his training, both from a work and diet perspective.

With Boychuk re-signed, you can assume that Claude Julien will continue to play Chara with Boychuk, at least to start next regular season. The guy who has the best chance at breaking up Chara and Boychuk might be youngster Dougie Hamilton, but don’t expect that to happen next season. Hamilton needs to show he can handle 20-plus minutes a night before he can be paired with a guy like Chara, but the idea of a Chara-Hamilton pairing could really put the Bruins’ blue line over the top. Hamilton could be the offensive presence on the back end that the team has been seeking for years.

Getting back to Chara: The offensive numbers may go up and down, but he’ll be the first to tell that while he likes to score, he prides himself on not letting the other team score. In a nutshell, that’s what he is. He’s the guy who will play close to half the game, be a nightmare for opposing teams’ offensive stars, and keep opponents off the board. Then there’s that slapshot.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was among the three finalists for the Norris Trophy, which is awarded to ‘to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.’ The other finalists are Nashville’sShea Weber and Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson.

Chara had a career-best 52 points (12 goals, 40 assists) during the regular season and his plus-33 rating was tops among all defensemen. This is his fourth nomination for the Norris, which he won in 2009.

By Mike Petraglia | Comments Off on Bruins getting offensive with the defense

For all of the talk – and deservedly so – about Patrice Bergeron finally getting nominated as a finalist for the Selke award for best defensive forward in the game, it’s ironic that the offensive play of the Bruins’ defensemen is a key reason they even find themselves in a Game 7 Wednesday night against the Caps.

“Yeah, they’ve played well all series, but also I think all year and it’s just another aspect of our game that shows right there that we’re deep offensively, but also we’re deep on defense and throughout the lineup,” Bergeron said Monday. “They’ve been helping us in this series a lot to just get offense, but also defensively to stop their skilled guys and can’t say enough about all of them back there. They all do their job and they all take pride in it.”

Everyone knows about the abilities of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg in helping to contain Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. And everyone knows that both of them bring cannons from the point with their slap shots. What fans – and even the Caps – may not have counted on was the offensive contributions of Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference.

Boychuck had one of his patented “Johnny Rockets” on a power play to tie Saturday’s Game 5 at 3-3, when time was running down. Sunday, it appeared for all the world that Ference – on “Earth Day” – had given the Bruins the game-winning goal in regulation when he pinched down and scooped up a rebound off a Tyler Seguin shot and put it in the net.

Earlier in the game, it was Ference who smartly read the rush of Patrice Bergeron and Rich Peverley out of the offensive zone circle draw toward the slot and fired a shot that Peverley tipped past Braden Holtby for the game’s first goal.

“I think he’s done a great job,” B’s coach Claude Julien said of Ference. “We’ve always liked Andrew’s battle and also for his size and also for the fact that he certainly has good versatility. He moves well, he skates well and again, we keep encouraging our D’s to support the attack and go out the ice and he’s done a great job of that.”

There is a risk, of course, like when Chara and Seidenberg get caught too far up ice as was the case on Capitals’ goals in Games 3 and 6. In Game 6, the Capitals tied the game, 2-2, when Jason Chimera got behind Seidenberg, who had a broken skate, and beat Tim Thomas.

“Our D’s seem to be finding a little bit more balance in this series as we get near the end, between jumping in [and] supporting, and also being reliable defensively we can’t forget the fact that this is a team in Washington that’s got some guys that can score goals and they love to blow the zone quickly. So we’ve got to be careful we don’t get our D’s caught up the ice all the time, but he did a great job [Sunday] at identifying that opening and going up the ice and giving us that lead.”

The Bruins will be relying on that again in Game 7 as they look for every advantage.

By Mike Petraglia | Comments Off on Stitches and all, Zdeno Chara is ready for another Game 7

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After taking a high stick from Alex Ovechkin in the second period of Sunday’s win over the Capitals, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara resembles Frankenstein with a series of stitches right across the bridge of his nose. It could’ve been worse, and Chara knows it. Now, he can look ahead to Game 7 Wednesday night at 7:30 at TD Garden.

“I feel good,” Chara said. “Obviously, it’s been tough to have back-to-back games, both afternoon games but again, it’s the schedule, and we all have to get through it and now we have two days to recover and get ready for Game 7.

“You always hear that teams play for that advantage, to have Game 7 at home but at the same time, we just have to be ready to play our way, the full 60, and even more if it needs to be. It doesn’t mean just because we’re at home we’re going to have an easy game. We still have to win the game on the ice.”

Chara and the Bruins have been pushed to the limit in more ways than one against the No. 7 seed Caps. Every game has been decided by one goal, the first time in Stanley Cup history that the first six games of a seven-game series have been so close. Now, the Bruins are back in familiar territory, a Game 7. But don’t think for a minute that Chara and the Bruins necessarily drew it up that way.

“No, I don’t think that’s the way we meant it,” Chara said. “Those games are always tough to win. Everything can go right and everything can go wrong in those games. You just have to make sure everything you do is maximized to almost perfection because obviously that’s the game that decides if you play for another day or you’re done.

“It’s very close, very tight series. Every game decided by one goal just tells you it’s really been close.”

Chara also took time Monday to thank a teammate that has finally been recognized by the league for his ability to play both ways on the ice. Patrice Bergeron was one of three finalists named for the Selke Award, given annually to the best defensive forward in the game.

“I’ve been saying that for years,” Chara said. “He should’ve been nominated way before this year. He’s such a reliable guy to have on the ice. He plays all the situations. You can really count on him when he’s on the ice that he’s going to get the job done. It’s just a pleasure to have a teammate like that. He’s such a tremendous person and hard worker, and obviously a leader, there’s no question in my mind he should be the winner.”

Like Chara, Bergy knows what it’s like to play through pain and he appreciates that Bergeron is doing it again this year, suffering an upper body injury in Saturday’s Game 5 that limited him to one faceoff draw in Game 6.

“That’s the way it is at this time of year, everybody sacrifices and does whatever he can to help the team,” Chara said. “That’s just the way it is.He’s been doing that for years. He’s always playing against top lines. Whatever job or task you ask from him, he’s going to do that. Explain all the situations, it’s always huge to have someone willing to play defense first before the offense. Not too many guys take as much pride in it as Bergy does.”